The present invention generally relates to fuel supplying apparatuses, and more particularly to a fuel supplying apparatus which has a single fuel supplying mode setting switch provided in a vicinity of a fuel supplying nozzle which is provided on a tip end of a fuel supplying hose. The fuel supplying apparatus according to the present invention is designed to selectively perform a fuel supplying operation in one mode from among a preset quantity supplying mode in which a preset quantity of fuel is supplied, an integral quantity supplying mode in which the supply of fuel is always stopped at an integral quantity when an operation is performed to stop the fuel supply during the fuel supplying operation, and an additional integral quantity supplying mode in which the quantity of supplied fuel is corrected to an integral quantity, responsive to a manipulation of the single mode setting switch.
Generally, modes of fuel supplying operations which are performed by a fuel supplying apparatus, may be roughly divided into the following three modes.
(i) A fill-up mode in which the fuel is supplied until a tank of a vehicle becomes full;
(ii) A preset quantity supplying mode in which a fuel supplying quantity is preset before the fuel supplying operation is started, and the fuel is supplied until the preset quantity is reached; and
(iii) An integral quantity supplying mode in which the supply of fuel is always stopped at an integral quantity when an operation is performed to stop the fuel supply during the fuel supplying operation. When a switch is manipulated to stop the fuel supply during the above preset quantity supplying mode (ii) of the fuel supplying apparatus, the supply of fuel is stopped when the quantity of supplied fuel reaches an integral quantity which is greater than and is closest to the quantity of supplied fuel at the point when the switch is manipulated.
A fuel supplying nozzle of a conventional fuel supplying apparatus is generally provided with a mechanism for automatically stopping the supply of fuel when it is detected that the tank of the vehicle is full. For this reason, it is unnecessary to provide a special switch for setting the fuel supplying apparatus to the fill-up mode (i) described before. However, switches must be provided in order to set the fuel supplying apparatus to the modes (ii) and (iii) described before.
On the other hand, there is the so-called hanging type fuel supplying apparatus in which a fuel supplying hose having the fuel supplying nozzle provided on the tip end thereof, is provided in a hanging manner from a delivery unit which is located at a high position such as a ceiling of a fuel supplying station. In such a hanging type fuel supplying apparatus, switches are provided in a vicinity of the fuel supplying nozzle, so that the operator may easily manipulate these switches. Hence, in the conventional hanging type fuel supplying apparatus which is designed to operate in the modes (i) through (iii) described before, a total of three switches are provided in the vicinity of the fuel supplying nozzle. In other words, two switches are provided for setting the fuel supplying apparatus to the modes (ii) and (iii), in addition to an elevator switch for raising and lowering the fuel supplying nozzle. Generally, the elevator switch comprises a push button switch for raising the fuel supplying nozzle, and a pull switch for lowering the fuel supplying nozzle. The pull switch is pulled when the operator pulls on a string which is connected to the pull switch.
Accordingly, a large number of switches are provided in the conventional fuel supplying apparatus. Thus, the construction of a switch box which accommodates the switches which are provided in the vicinity of the fuel supplying nozzle, is complex. Further, a flowing path for the fuel within the fuel supplying hose is narrow, because a large number of signal lines originate from the switches. Moreover, it is not easy to manipulate the fuel supplying nozzle since the switch box is bulky. When the switch box is to be downsized, the switches must be arranged close to each other, but this will increase the possibility of erroneous manipulation of the switches, such as an erroneous manipulation of a switch adjacent to a switch which is actually to be manipulated. The possibility of such an erroneous manipulation of the switches increases as the number of switches increases. In addition, when further increasing the modes of fuel supplying operations which are to be performed by the fuel supplying apparatus, it is necessary to increase a corresponding number of switches, and the problems described above become even more notable.